I happened upon the $20 deal on Steam and was considering trying out this game. I heard a lot about it growing up (and watched my stepbrother play it when I was younger) and was kind of surprised it's still kicking.

So, I have a few questions:

1) What is the population like? One of the stickied posts said it was still going strong, but it was last edited a couple of years ago, so I wanted a more recent opinion. The official SE forums look kind of dead. Which server is the most populated?

2) I saw from the stickied threads that downloading the game from Steam had some problems as of January. Are those problems still present? Am I able to get the same $20 deal with all expansions from SE itself to avoid these issues?

You can avoid those problems by buying the game from amazon.com. It is a digital download just like steam, and it will list your registration codes in your digital download history.

I can't tell you which server has the best population, but I can tell you that if you decide to join Shiva, you can join my linkshell. We are always looking for people, and we have a good group to get your feet wet in the game, and when you are ready, can involve yourself in our events. Sound like fun? =)

As an alternative to both Steam and Amazon, I got my copy of FFXI from Direct2Drive, which is now owned by GameFly.

The population doesn't seem to be quite as high as it once was, but there's still enough of us that SE is releasing another expansion next month.

Speaking of which, you may want to consider preordering the FFXI Ultimate Collection: Seekers of Adoulin edition. It'll cost you $40 now, but that's a bit better than paying $20 for the game now plus another $30 when the expansion comes out. Also, the Ultimate Collection will give you an item called the Chocobo Shirt, which looks like it will be an awesome piece of gear for characters that are level 30 and lower. I think you also get the Destrier Beret, which pairs up nicely with said shirt.

After I registered a Content ID and tried to start the game, it started doing this update, which takes hours. I let it run for about 2 hours, after which a momentary blip in my internet connection caused it to completely fail and have to start all over.

My computer is on a wireless network. There is absolutely 0 chance of keeping a stable connection long enough for whatever this is to finish. At the moment, I'm writing this off as a waste of $7 and hours of my time.

Is there any way to get around this update? Or do it in a way that it actually saves its own progress?

The random name generators also give you names that match the racial lore you're aiming for.

Humes: Regular names Elvaan: French sounding Mithra: Regular names with lots of extra Hs added in Galka: Native American sounding names Tarutaru: Boy Tarus have a compound name with a repeating sound. Ajido-Marujido is an NPC, for example. Tapratopra might be one that the generator makes for you. Girl Tarutaru names simply repeat the last syllable. Ajido-Marujido's sister is Apururu. Another example that the RNG might create would be Taprara.

Draw my character, Vlor!

Edited, Feb 24th 2013 11:05am by catwho

____________________________

FFXI: Catwho on Bismarck: Retired December 2014

Thayos wrote:

I can't understand anyone who skips the cutscenes of a Final Fantasy game. That's like going to Texas and not getting barbecue.